We went white water rafting right on the Chillean border, it took us two hours to get there because 30 of the 100 kilometres of road was just gravel, it wasnt the most comfortable trip but they gave us lollies on the way though wich made up for it. Breakfast came complimentary with the package. Argentinians eat alot of pastries for breakfast.. well they only eat pastries, and cake, and flan things and they have their coffee pretty much straight, with about 2kgs of sugar. So after a few crossaunts and coffee we had enough energy to face the RAPIDS OF DOOM. I wish i had my camera on me so you guys could see how rediculous we all looked in the wetsuits, helmet and puffy jacket.
Our instructor was absolutely hallarious, he gave us a quick safety overview and then showed us the ideal ways to splash the other boats with your paddles, ideally going for the eyes. The water from the river flowed from glaciers up the mountains, so it was so clear you could see the bottom, and you could even drink it as you swam around. As we began to approach the first rapid he explained that he would basically be shouting forward, backwards and stop commands, and if he shouts it louder, we need to do it faster and if he stops, he´s probably falling off the boat. The first rapid was only small, but one of the 8 on board fell out and steve nearly did, partially because i was on top of him... When we finished he showed us the victory cheer, which was kind of like the hands in the midde of the circle then lift them up with a ´ÝEAAAH!, and then we all had to bang heads in the middle. our cheer was waaay better than the other boats..
We floated down river for about 2 and a half hours, with rapids every 15 to 20 minutes and we could just sit back and soak in the awesome mountain views and talk to the others on board between crazy times. When we finished (about 5m into the chillean border!), it was a half hour ride back to camp but we got a PARILLA when we got back so all was forgiven.
Back at the hostel we organised to meet up with Jasper and Judith (yasper and yudith!!) for australia day, so we grabbed a litre of vodka, 6 litres of beer, a kilo and a half of tbone steak and hit the parrilla hardcore. This would be our final encounter with jasper so we had to finish it off in style. Herbert the austrian also joined us, claiming that austrian was so similar to australian that he should be able to celebrate also. After eating a considerable amount we headed to a disco with some guys from the hostel and randomly ran into some girls from the rafting and disco-tecked the night away. We even got an awesome hamburger with salsa from a guy on the street on the way home...
Tomorrow we leave for Osorno for some trekking and volcanoes!
